Book Review: ‘Under the Dome’
I’ve been reading Stephen King since high school. Most of his novels are okay, and there have been a few I really loved. So when I bought his most recent magnum opus, Under the Dome
The basic premise of Stephen King’s Under the Dome is very simple: A mysterious dome falls over the town of Chester’s Mill, cutting the town and its inhabitants off from the rest of the world. Families are split apart. Electricity is cut off. No more shipments of food or other supplies. Worst of all, even the town’s air supply is isolated and quickly becomes stale and filled with pollutants. And like a window left unwashed, the dome gets dirty, blurring the sun and turning the stars strange colors.
The opening chapters of Under the Dome can be overwhelming because of the large number of characters that are introduced. But as you keep reading, the characters take on a life of their own and you stop thinking: “Okay, who’s this? What does he do?”. In the end, only a handful of characters emerge as important. Once I got into the book, the characters were easy enough to track.
One central figure in the novel is Selectman James “Big Jim” Rennie: A power-hungry, violent and dangerous member of the city council, who, after the dome falls, assumes responsibility for the town. He takes control fast, mostly by recruiting some of Chester’s Mill’s more shady characters to work as police officers. The only comparison I have for Big Jim is that he’s like a modern day Hitler.
He uses fear to gain support, however irrational that fear might be, and rallies as many of the town’s citizens as he can to support his cause – complete control of the town. This control can be seen by the blue armbands his supporters wear in a show of support for Jim and his army of young police recruits.
Dale (Barbie) Barbara is Big Jim’s opposite. Barbie is a former Army officer and Iraq War vet who worked as a short-order cook at the Sweet Briar Rose Diner until the dome fell. Barbie is unwillingly thrown into a leadership position when the President of the United States reinstates him in the Army and promotes him to Colonel – making him the de facto leader of Chester’s Mill. This, however, runs in direct opposition to Big Jim’s plans. A lot of scenes throughout the novel show Big Jim trying to finish Barbie off for good – and he almost succeeds.
The novel reminds me of those apocalyptic and end-of-the-world scenarios, only on a micro-scale. As soon as the dome falls Chester’s Mill quickly descends into unruly chaos that one would expect in the midst of a major catastrophe that, for the citizens of the small town, could very well mean the end of times.
But only their world of Chester’s Mill is nearing the end, while the outside world continues on with normal life. It’s a strange dichotomy. Citizens of Chester’s Mill can go right up to the dome and see the outside world, but have no access to it. Likewise, those on the outside can see the pain and suffering inside the dome, but are powerless to help.
As the novel progresses, conditions under the dome worsen; partly because of the obvious difficulties the dome itself throws at the town, and partly because of the decisions Big Jim makes. It becomes very obvious near the end of the novel that the Big Jim’s poor management of the town and corrupt tendencies made the dome even more dangerous than it should have been.
The novel is peppered throughout with scenes and “incidents” filled with heads being blown off and people being killed in all sorts of creative ways. It just wouldn’t be a Stephen King book without a healthy element of horror and gore. Characters are killed off at a surprising clip – which left me to wonder just who would survive until the end, if any.
At the very least, seeing characters die off so quickly makes the novel a page turner. Although I can’t help but wonder of Stephen King just likes to kill people off for the sake of killing people off.
The ending was satisfying. King doesn’t leave the reader hanging. However, I’m very picky when it comes to endings and I would’ve liked to see more. I always feel a bit of disappointment when the action continues right up to the last few pages, leaving only a page or two for the story to resolve itself. King did a decent job here, I didn’t feel ripped off by the novel’s ending.
Yes, I will recommend this novel. If you have the option of buying Under the Dome as an ebook, I’d would definitely suggest it. The hardcover version is big, bulky and heavy - not the type you want to carry around and read in the waiting room at the doctor’s office. The ebook version is cheaper too. I bought mine from the Sony ebookstore for $9.99.
Have you read Under the Dome? If so, leave a comment and share your thoughts.
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